Computing and communication networks typically include network devices, such as routers, firewalls, switches or gateways, which transfer or switch data, such as packets, from one or more sources to one or more destinations. Network devices may operate on the packets as the packets traverse the network, such as by forwarding or filtering the packet-based network traffic. Packets may be temporarily stored in queues as packets are moved through the network devices.
Network devices may use virtual local area networks (VLANs) to forward packets to a destination device. The network device may authenticate the destination device (e.g., using an identifier associated with the destination device) and may associate and/or “bind” the destination device to a particular VLAN configured on the network device. When the network device receives packets destined for the destination device, the network device may forward the packet to the destination device via the particular VLAN. Unfortunately, when the destination device remains inactive for a period of time (e.g., that is greater than a threshold), the authentication of the destination device may expire. The expired authentication may cause the network device to disassociate and/or unbind the destination device from the particular VLAN, which may render the network device unable to send the packets to the destination device.